In recent years, the number of terminals for an electrical connector (hereinafter, an electrical connector is sometimes referred to simply as “connector”) for use in the field of automobiles and the like has increased.
Accordingly, there is a known electrical connector having multi-stacked and combined contact housings, wherein each housing accommodates a plurality of terminals aligned side by side in one direction (for example, as disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2007-95360 and Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2011-96397). Each of the stacked contact housings includes a protrusion and an engaging piece to be engaged with this protrusion, formed on its side face. Thus, the vertically aligned contact housings are coupled together when the protrusion of one of the contact housings engages with an engaging piece on the other contact housing.
With reference to FIG. 5, a known connector 3 is shown having a lock housing 2 that couples with a plurality of stacked contact housings 1. For each contact housing 1, a recess 5 is disposes along a lower surface 1c side thereof, while a protrusion 6 is disposes on an upper surface 1d side, which is opposite to the lower surface side 1c. Accordingly, the contact housings 1 can vertically align and stack upon each other when a catch formed on a tip of the protrusion 6 couples with an engaging member formed on the recess 5.
Moreover, when the contact housings 1 are stacked, the protrusion 6 of the lower one of the contact housings 1 enters into the recess 5 of the upper one of the contact housings 1. As a result, movement of the stacked contact housings 1 relative to each other can be prevented. A first face 1a and a second face 1b (on the opposite side thereof) of each of the contact housing 1 can maintain alignment with respect to each other, as stacked.
However, in the above-mentioned structure, a length of the protrusion 6 is made smaller than a length of the recess 5 so as to easily engage the recess 5 and the protrusion 6 with each other. For this reason, a clearance C is formed between the recess 5 and the protrusion 6 along the respective lengths. As a result, a certain amount of positional displacement may occur within the clearance C between the contact housings 1 when vertically aligned with each other.
In the case when, as shown in FIG. 5, the connector 3 includes stacked contact housings 1 (for example, five stages in FIG. 5), if all the paired contact housings 1 all vertically aligned with each other are displaced in the same direction, the lowermost contact housing 1 is considerably displaced relative to the lock housing 2, as shown in FIG. 6. As a result, a contact held on the contact housing 1 with the great amount of displacement and a contact held on the counter connector may not ensure an effective mating length.